04.07.14
Gemini version available ♊︎Both Apple and Microsoft Compare Their Corporate Causes to Religion
Summary: Steve Jobs calls competition (litigation) with Android a “holy war” whereas Bill Gates calls undermining Linux a “Jihad”
TECHRIGHTS is the recipient of various smears that claim the site or its authors to be something that they are not (misrepresentation). We wrote many articles about it about 5 years ago, having seen smears as bad as “Taliban”. A very common pattern of smears is to call your rival/opponent in a debate “religious” about an opinion, as in dogmatic and detached from logic (there are other similar labels like “tinfoil hat” or “conspiracy theory”, as noted years ago). The FSF, despite being mostly atheistic, is a regular recipient of the “religion” smear (Stallman’s parodies of religion may contribute to this). Microsoft sometimes smears Free software by characterising it as a religion and we, as vocal Novell critics, received similar smears from Novell apologists/staff (Microsoft Linux is still alive by the way and it is spreading to Google). Calling/labeling “religious” those who are non-religious makes no sense. It’s a cheap shot and those who use such cheap shots are often the ones who are irrational and detached from an alternative (opposing) point of view. When logic doesn’t work in an argument, then cheap shots get used, or ad hominem attacks.
Now, similar arguments have been made by some Apple “fanboys” (a label in itself) when they were accused of following Apple like it’s a religion (or cult, i.e. small religion). Those jokes about Apple being followed like a religion and Jobs being treated like a Messiah are not so far fetched anymore. And why?
The proponent of "thermonuclear" action turns out to have referred to his war on Android/Linux as a “holy war”.
Holy?
Really?!
Holy crap.
To quote CNBC: “Steve Jobs warned Apple’s leadership a year before his death that the company he founded faced an “innovator’s dilemma” over the growing threat from Google and promised a “holy war” on smartphones running its Android software, according to evidence shown in court on Tuesday”
This is almost as bad as Bill Gates' allegory/wording when he asked “where are we on this Jihad?” (referring to Microsoft’s war against Linux inside Intel).
Next time you see Free software proponents being referred to as “religious” or something along those lines remember the words of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. They themselves seem to define/characterise their companies as religious movements.
It is clear why Apple is so afraid of Android, as now revealed by documents from inside Apple [1], noting that people are moving to Android and never coming back to the “holy” Apple (not even if they work for a company that’s a partner of Apple [2]). The other Steve from Apple (Wozniak) is now an Android user and he likes to brag (publicly) about Android phones, which based on some new study [3] are technically better and more stable.
People need not have a religious-type faith to choose GNU/Linux or Android; they do, however, need to have a strong belief in Apple in order to choose an overpriced iPhone. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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iPhone becomes victim of Android’s success, makes Apple worry
Internal Apple documents show that the company’s sales department is anxious about growing competition from Android-powered devices amidst declining iPhone sales, Re/code said in a report.
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Why I’m glad I never abandoned Android for an iPhone
I’ve written about and reviewed mobile phones for almost a decade and a half. Everything from flip phones, to BlackBerrys, to today’s hottest Android models, and yes, Apple iPhones, have passed through my hands. That experience is why, more than anything, I’ve ultimately settled on Google Android as my smartphone platform of choice.
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Android more stable than iOS: Study
For long we have been hearing strories that Android is unsafe, unstable, while iOS is reliable. But new data that has emerged will totally change the picture. A study conducted by Crittercism, a performance monitoring company has revealed that while iOS 7.1 is the most stable version of iOS to date, its Android counterpart is far more stable.
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Michael said,
April 7, 2014 at 3:09 pm
What a twisted piece! Using religious-based metaphors is not a sign that these companies are in any way religious. They are not. There is no overarching religious principle, other, perhaps for MS to make money and for Apple to make things easy to use (and both of those are gross over simplifications).
As you say:
And that is exactly what you are doing here.
Now compare that to those who follow Stallman’s cult-like teachings where he bastardizes the language and claims that to be “Free” one must succumb to his limitations. Just utter nonsense. Nothing wrong with the GPL – it is truly a masterful piece of work and a fine choice for protecting your IP – but it is not more “free” than, say, licenses which allow for more freedoms, such as the BSD license (also a fine choice). And Stallman has pushed his cult-like notion that all software developers, ideally in his view, would be forced to follow his ideas. His cult-like ideas.
Even Linus Torvalds speaks of this:
If you cannot figure out he is speaking of Stallman and his extremist cult-like followers you do not understand the open source world.